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Cupid and Psyche for children

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Cupid and Psyche
This chapter is in the book Cupid and Psyche
Lisa MauriceCupid and PsycheforchildrenAlthough the narrativeofCupid andPsychecontains manyelements that featurein traditionalfairy tales throughout theWestern world, there are also aspectsofthe myth thatmay not seem particularlysuitable for theyoung.Nevertheless,thestory has long been belovedofauthorsofjuvenile literature,and throughout thetwentieth and twenty-first centuries the story has appearedinmultipleversionsfor children, all of which must deal with the issue of how exactlytoadapt or‘censor’the story foryouth.¹In this paperIprovideachronological overviewof the various retellingsofthe myth, examining how it has been adapted and uti-lized in children’sliterature over the past 150years.1PopularisingCupid and Psyche.ThomasBulfinch’sThe Age of FableAlthough not originallywritten for children, Bulfinch’sretelling ofApuleius’talehas been so influential on laterjuvenileversions that it onlymakes sense to startwith thisversion. An obituaryofBulfinch described him as:theauthor of several books of decided usefulness,which he prepared with great painstak-ing and taste....TheAge ofFable,...in which, expurgated of all thatwould be offensive,hepresented inasuccinct and lucid manneralarge amount of information neededbyreaders,and especiallybyyoungreaders,inregardtothe beliefs,superstitions and traditions of thepast.²Bulfinch’swork, accordingtohis own introduction toTheAge ofFable,wasaimed atageneral, non-specialisedaudience,and its aim was:To teach readerswhoare notyetfamiliar with the writers of Greeceand Rome,...enough ofthe storieswhich form what is called theirmythology,tomakethose allusions intelligiblewhich one meets every day, even in theauthors of our own time.³OntheissueofcensorshipseeMcClure1983,22–5;Foerstel2006;Booth2011,26–30;Hutch-eon2006,118.TheBostonDailyEveningTranscript,May27,1867.Bulfinch1855,3https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110641585-022
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Lisa MauriceCupid and PsycheforchildrenAlthough the narrativeofCupid andPsychecontains manyelements that featurein traditionalfairy tales throughout theWestern world, there are also aspectsofthe myth thatmay not seem particularlysuitable for theyoung.Nevertheless,thestory has long been belovedofauthorsofjuvenile literature,and throughout thetwentieth and twenty-first centuries the story has appearedinmultipleversionsfor children, all of which must deal with the issue of how exactlytoadapt or‘censor’the story foryouth.¹In this paperIprovideachronological overviewof the various retellingsofthe myth, examining how it has been adapted and uti-lized in children’sliterature over the past 150years.1PopularisingCupid and Psyche.ThomasBulfinch’sThe Age of FableAlthough not originallywritten for children, Bulfinch’sretelling ofApuleius’talehas been so influential on laterjuvenileversions that it onlymakes sense to startwith thisversion. An obituaryofBulfinch described him as:theauthor of several books of decided usefulness,which he prepared with great painstak-ing and taste....TheAge ofFable,...in which, expurgated of all thatwould be offensive,hepresented inasuccinct and lucid manneralarge amount of information neededbyreaders,and especiallybyyoungreaders,inregardtothe beliefs,superstitions and traditions of thepast.²Bulfinch’swork, accordingtohis own introduction toTheAge ofFable,wasaimed atageneral, non-specialisedaudience,and its aim was:To teach readerswhoare notyetfamiliar with the writers of Greeceand Rome,...enough ofthe storieswhich form what is called theirmythology,tomakethose allusions intelligiblewhich one meets every day, even in theauthors of our own time.³OntheissueofcensorshipseeMcClure1983,22–5;Foerstel2006;Booth2011,26–30;Hutch-eon2006,118.TheBostonDailyEveningTranscript,May27,1867.Bulfinch1855,3https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110641585-022
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. List of contributors VII
  4. Table of Contents IX
  5. Introduction 1
  6. I. Baroque and the Influence of La Fontaine
  7. ‘Del soffrir degli affanni è dolce il fine’. Ancient myth and comic drama in G.F. Fusconi’s libretto (with G.F. Loredano and P. Michiel) for F. Cavalli, Amore innamorato (1642) 31
  8. Apuleius at the court of Louis XIV. Psyché (1671, 1678) and its English version (1675) 47
  9. How to use a wallpaper. Psyché et Cupidon—notice explicative 61
  10. Psyche in the salon. French interior decoration in the eighteenth century 79
  11. II. Romanticism and Philosophy
  12. ‘Pensive pleasures’ in prose and poetry. Apuleius, Mary Tighe and eighteenth-century Ireland 101
  13. The Platonic Ass: Thomas Taylor’s Cupid and Psyche in Context (1795–1822) 119
  14. Keats’s ‘Ode to Psyche’. Psyche as poetry and inspiration 147
  15. Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth and Apuleius’ tale of Cupid and Psyche 167
  16. Kierkegaard as a reader of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 181
  17. Robert Bridges’ Eros and Psyche and its models 203
  18. III. Fin de Siècle and Psychology
  19. From Psyche to psyche. The interiorisation of Apuleius’ fabella in D’Annunzio, Pascoli, and Savinio 225
  20. Between Symbolism and Popular Culture. Cupid and Psyche in Fin de siècle Book Illustration 247
  21. Psyche the psychotic. Cupid and Psyche in Dr. Franz Riklin’s Wishfulfilment and Symbolism in Fairy Tales 273
  22. Psyche and Cupid in the Novels of Charlotte M. Yonge and Sylvia Townsend Warner 289
  23. IV. Twentieth Century and Modernism
  24. Eudora Welty’s The Robber Bridegroom. Cupid and Psyche on the Natchez Trace 307
  25. Cupid & Psyche and C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces. A Christian-Platonic metamorphosis 323
  26. Faulkner’s reception(s) of Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche in The Reivers 339
  27. ‘I have tried to be blind in love’. Psyche and the quest for feminine poetic autonomy in Sylvia Plath’s House of Eros 357
  28. V. New Audiences
  29. Cupid and Psyche for children 381
  30. Cupid and Psyche on stage in the 21st century 397
  31. Undertones of Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth 415
  32. Beauty and the Beast as a myth and metaphor in the contemporary world. Looking forward with Apuleius’ fable of Cupid and Psyche 433
  33. List of Figures 451
  34. Index 455
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110641585-022

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. List of contributors VII
  4. Table of Contents IX
  5. Introduction 1
  6. I. Baroque and the Influence of La Fontaine
  7. ‘Del soffrir degli affanni è dolce il fine’. Ancient myth and comic drama in G.F. Fusconi’s libretto (with G.F. Loredano and P. Michiel) for F. Cavalli, Amore innamorato (1642) 31
  8. Apuleius at the court of Louis XIV. Psyché (1671, 1678) and its English version (1675) 47
  9. How to use a wallpaper. Psyché et Cupidon—notice explicative 61
  10. Psyche in the salon. French interior decoration in the eighteenth century 79
  11. II. Romanticism and Philosophy
  12. ‘Pensive pleasures’ in prose and poetry. Apuleius, Mary Tighe and eighteenth-century Ireland 101
  13. The Platonic Ass: Thomas Taylor’s Cupid and Psyche in Context (1795–1822) 119
  14. Keats’s ‘Ode to Psyche’. Psyche as poetry and inspiration 147
  15. Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth and Apuleius’ tale of Cupid and Psyche 167
  16. Kierkegaard as a reader of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 181
  17. Robert Bridges’ Eros and Psyche and its models 203
  18. III. Fin de Siècle and Psychology
  19. From Psyche to psyche. The interiorisation of Apuleius’ fabella in D’Annunzio, Pascoli, and Savinio 225
  20. Between Symbolism and Popular Culture. Cupid and Psyche in Fin de siècle Book Illustration 247
  21. Psyche the psychotic. Cupid and Psyche in Dr. Franz Riklin’s Wishfulfilment and Symbolism in Fairy Tales 273
  22. Psyche and Cupid in the Novels of Charlotte M. Yonge and Sylvia Townsend Warner 289
  23. IV. Twentieth Century and Modernism
  24. Eudora Welty’s The Robber Bridegroom. Cupid and Psyche on the Natchez Trace 307
  25. Cupid & Psyche and C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces. A Christian-Platonic metamorphosis 323
  26. Faulkner’s reception(s) of Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche in The Reivers 339
  27. ‘I have tried to be blind in love’. Psyche and the quest for feminine poetic autonomy in Sylvia Plath’s House of Eros 357
  28. V. New Audiences
  29. Cupid and Psyche for children 381
  30. Cupid and Psyche on stage in the 21st century 397
  31. Undertones of Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth 415
  32. Beauty and the Beast as a myth and metaphor in the contemporary world. Looking forward with Apuleius’ fable of Cupid and Psyche 433
  33. List of Figures 451
  34. Index 455
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